Innholdsfortegnelse for May/June 2017 i Veranda

NEW YORK PHILHARMONIC SPRING GALA Tailored to a Breakfast at Tiffany’s theme. Pearl-and-diamond necklace (1), $190,000; tiffany.com. ART BASEL A masterpiece for your finger. Crownwork (RGRS-770) ring (2), $11,210; raygriffiths.com. AMERICA’S CUP Race-ready. Cosmograph Daytona watch (3), $12,400; rolex.com. SARGENT: THE WATERCOLOURS At the Dulwich Picture Gallery, London. Caterina Pansy earrings (4), $900; larkspurandhawk.com. MARLENE DIETRICH: DRESSED FOR THE IMAGE At the Smithsonian’s National Portrait Gallery. Nova bracelet (5), $18,750; vahanjewelry.com. ASPEN IDEAS FESTIVAL Capture that alpine splendor. Flower Serpent Amulet (6), $19,500; templestclair.com. CARTIER QUEEN’S CUP Just add a fascinator. Pearl-and– rock crystal necklace (7), $26,880; elizabeth-gage.com. MOMA’S PARTY IN THE GARDEN Earthly delight. Garden Collection ring (8), $10,300; robertocoin.com. ATLANTA BOTANICAL GARDEN’S CONNOISSEURS TOUR Sweet synchronicity. Woodland charm bracelet (9), $47,000; asprey.com. CHELSEA FLOWER SHOW Rival the displays.…

sexy, sculptural curves on a generously scaled, deep sofa; gleaming brass sabots and a sunburst finish on a cocktail table; a klismos-esque chair with glittering nailhead trim—the furnishings in David Phoenix’s first collection for Hickory Chair capitalize on thoughtful little touches that add up to soigné, handsome versatility. The Los Angeles–based designer wanted to create tailored, unfussy pieces that are as inviting as they are good-looking. “I like beautiful things, but I like them comfortable,” says Phoenix. “A room should say, ‘Come in and sit down.’”…

Grand Tours Peek behind palace walls on architecturally inspired European trips. A PRIVATE VISIT to the Russell Page–designed gardens at the Agnelli family’s Villar Perosa. An intimate dinner in Sir John Soane’s library dining room. The Jacobean splendor of Blickling Hall, once home to the Boleyns. Sponsored trips by organizations such as the Institute of Classical Architecture & Art, Sir John Soane’s Museum Foundation, and the Royal Oak Foundation are an insider’s secret for unparalleled access. It’s the kind of travel you can really write home (or Instagram!) about, and some of their most breathtaking itineraries are taking place this fall. Be Our Guest For a transporting experience, check into a historic hotel. ASHFORD CASTLE in Ireland, once a Norman fortress, recently emerged from a $75 million redo to embrace…

a practiced hostess quickly tires of the standard place setting–centerpiece formula. “I wanted to celebrate the season without doing the traditional flower arrangement,” says painter and consummate party planner Cathy Graham. For a lunch in the garden of her New York townhouse, the author of Second Bloom: Cathy Graham’s Art of the Table (coming from Vendome Press in September) skipped the flower district and went to the farmers’ market instead. “I was in Union Square and was overwhelmed by the abundance: beets, chives, eggplants. I cut open a watermelon radish and the color was amazing.” So Graham treated the tablecloth like any other canvas, creating a three-dimensional composition directly on the linen using vegetables and herbs. Nasturtium tendrils weave around the china; radishes and pea pods form blooms. “I sliced…

OH, HOW DESIGNER FRANK DE BIASI suffers for his craft. Splinters. A wild car trip across Italy. Digging through back rooms and basements in shops hither and yon. Hours, days, often weeks of searching for the perfect light fixture, even if it’s only for a kids’ room. And that’s just for a single project—in this case, a getaway home on Long Island’s North Shore for a young New York family of five (plus three pooches). They come often, virtually every weekend and all summer, too, to their shingled white Colonial on six green acres. Here, they garden and play and most of all entertain—but their style does not involve engraved invitations or uplifted pinkies at tea. “We’re quite casual,” says the wife, “with kids running around and dogs lying on…

Countess Nicholas (Tania) Bobrinskoy, 93, has a life story that’s nothing short of cinematic: After growing up between Paris and the village of Versailles in a community of Russian émigrés, she fled to the United States on the eve of World War II. (“My father paid the passage with a bag of jewelry,” she recalls.) In New York, she met her second husband—Count Nicholas, a descendant of Catherine the Great—when she playfully doused him while hosing off her Afghan hounds on a Midtown sidewalk. “We never would have met in Russia,” she says. “My family was nobility, but not of that rank.” The duo went on to own Zina Studios, the custom wallcoveringand- fabric studio that was beloved by Sister Parish, Albert Hadley, and Elsie de Wolfe. “Those great designers…

what does your sofa say about you? If these portraits are any indication, quite a bit, actually. Consider Lee Radziwill in Paris, on the phone, cigarette in hand, mid-puff. Note the curve of her chignon and of her sofa, a scroll-back number in salmon silk. It’s an essay in authentic, everyday elegance. Or Brooke Astor in her Albert Hadley–designed library (see next page). That sofa, in Brunschwig & Fils’s La Portugaise, might as well be a throne. There’s no telling how many yards of chintz the shot has sold, but there’s no doubt about this: The photographer captured something of her essence, and the magic of it will long endure.…

WHAT IS IT ABOUT THE ALLURE of a historic house? With their children grown, Dallas designer Cathy Kincaid’s clients were already thinking about downsizing when the pretty 1930s Spanish Colonial across the street went on the market. “I had always noticed it, and I could tell it had potential,” says the wife. “It needed a lot of work. Someone else might have been tempted to tear it down, but we couldn’t resist it.” The subsequent renovation was extensive, to say the least. Nearly every door, window, and surface was replaced—but all with the goal of re-creating what would have been authentic to the home when it was built. “They really understood the sensibility of the house,” says Kincaid, who has decorated several other properties for the couple, including their previous…

TAYLOR TOMASI HILL’S FAVORITE THINGS her flame-red hair often sets Taylor Tomasi Hill apart from the fashion flock during its biannual migration through New York, Milan, and Paris. That and her idiosyncratic way of dressing—voluminous sweaters and vivid printed skirts; tartans paired with blowsy florals; layered ensembles in which a bustier might end up over a crisp oxford shirt. Her savoir faire has made her a darling of street-style blogs and Instagram. “It’s fun to pair things that don’t necessarily belong together in a traditional sense,” she says. “Sometimes it works, often it doesn’t, but I find it rewarding to keep mixing it up.” Tomasi Hill’s career has been as multifaceted as her outfits, with stints at Teen Vogue, W, and Marie Claire; as creative director of the website Moda…

no matter the decor, any room benefits from a touch of wicker. The understated technique brings a dose of texture to contemporary spaces and can leaven even the most formal of traditional scenes. It’s also a versatile shape-shifter: Taking on forms as varied as chairs, lighting, baskets, and mirrors, it’s excessively easy—and stylish—to adopt, indoors and out.…

when the asparagus has shot up and green beans dangle from twirling vines in Keith Robinson’s planting beds, the seasonal abundance practically demands a celebration. “We’re harvesting the best of what the garden has to offer for a fresh and effortless dinner,” says the event designer, whose historic plantation is outside Atlanta. For the setting, he chose a sun-soaked spot on a bucolic dirt path smack in the middle of the vegetable garden. Espaliered apple trees arch overhead while the surrounding plots burst with San Marzano tomatoes, irises, and the spidery leaves of crinum lilies. Enveloped by sweetly scented honeysuckle and colorful legumes, it’s one of his treasured locales for taking in the kaleidoscopic beauty of the season. Robinson gravitated toward a rustic look, with mismatched chairs and a richly…

with an exuberant palette, willowy brushstrokes, and a sharp sense of humor, the artist Florine Stettheimer painted beguiling scenes from her New York life in vibrant, satirical portraits of her glittering Jazz Age contemporaries—cultural luminaries like Marcel Duchamp, Carl Van Vechten, and Georgia O’Keeffe, who frequented the preeminent Manhattan salon she hosted with her mother and two of her sisters. Stettheimer’s sinuous figures are whimsical and emotive, set against flat backgrounds and surrounded by an array of symbolic objects. “She was a highly gifted painter, but also extremely socially observant,” says Stephen Brown, the cocurator of Florine Stettheimer: Painting Poetry at the Jewish Museum in New York, which pairs the art with poems from Stettheimer’s journals to illuminate the hidden meanings of the nuanced works. Thus decoded, the influential modernist…

GLAMOUR and shine have a potent, age-old affinity, which could be why interior designer Jan Showers seems unerringly attracted to both. Take this 1970s-era townhouse that she shares with her attorney husband, Jim, in the tony Turtle Creek neighborhood of Dallas. Balancing restraint with opulence, she’s arrayed it with examples of everything she loves, from midcentury modernism to French design from the 1940s. Meanwhile, every corner shimmers with glass, mirrors, Lucite, lacquer, silver leaf, gold leaf, and fruitwood polished to fiery brilliance. “I’m earthbound and material—maybe too much,” Showers says. “But what I’m really most interested in is light.” It’s obvious, and it suits her. With an extensive furniture collection, her own Dallas showroom, several product lines for high-end companies, and an elite clientele from San Francisco to London, Showers…

PERSONAL LUXURIES Taylor Tomasi Hill, Forty Five Ten, fortyfiveten.com. Page 51 Jacquemus blazer, Junya Watanabe skirt, and Alaïa sandals: Forty Five Ten, fortyfiveten.com. OBJECTS OF DESIRE Page 54 New York Philharmonic Spring Gala: nyphil.org. Art Basel: artbasel.com. America’s Cup: americascup.com. Sargent: The Watercolours: dulwichpicturegallery.org.uk. Marlene Dietrich: Dressed for the Image: npg.si.edu. Aspen Ideas Festival: aspenideas.org. Cartier Queen’s Cup: guardspoloclub.com. MoMA’s The Party in the Garden: moma.org. Atlanta Botanical Garden’s Gardens for Connoisseurs Tour: atlantabg.org. Chelsea Flower Show: rhs.org.uk. Formula 1 Monaco Grand Prix: monaco-grand-prix.com. Page 56 Houston Symphony Ball: houstonsymphony.org. Auction Napa Valley: auctionnapavalley.org. Kentucky Derby: kentuckyderby.com. Save Venice Gala: savevenice.org. Maison & Objet Miami: maison-objet.com. Jazz Age Lawn Party: jazzagelawnparty.com. CFDA Fashion Awards: cfda.com. The Washington Ballet Ball: washingtonballet.org. Chicago Academy of Sciences/ Peggy Notebaert Nature Museum Butterfly Ball:…